In Rift I first started using a theme, with all my toons using the prefix Vay: Vaydron, Vaydrax, Vaydros, Vaydram, etc.

In WoW I used to give each character a unique name but now I've started a simpler approach: My old main was named Arothand, as is my handle, so when I faction changed my paladin to switch mains I used an anagram of that and came up with Tharando. I have a list with a few more anagrams but I don't tend to make many alts so having a handful should serve me well. I haven't renamed my Warlock (I chose Marbas because it was the name of a demon associated with diseases; seemed quite Warlock-y) because I don't really play him anymore so it would be a waste of money.

On my main Horde server, all of my characters have names based on or modified from the auto-generator names: Warashne, Rexig, Valexanie, Aralistra, Tergra, Grudur. My two trolls are a sort of chain-reference; I started on Dalaran originally and made a shaman named Ouga. Then he got remade on Steamwheedle, and I made his sister and named her Chakkah. Blue trolls, soft fur that I've heard as compared to suede, which is close enough to pun off of Swede. My warrior, Schtor, was originally named Zomgwut because that was, more or less, what he said to the old Starting NPC for Forsaken pre-Cata - "Zom...guh...what?!?" was his response to the 'Blah blah walking corpse blah blah self-determination blah blah go kill stuff' spiel. Zom G. Wat was what was on his name tag, and that's what he stuck with until someone got their knickers in a twist and reported the name: evidently, RP is only allowed to be serious. Pokmi is an exception due to a theme that was decided on the moment I saw the specs for monks - while everyone went with the typical Chinese or Japanese sounding names, I took the more faux-Korean approach, which is why her proper name is Nao Pok Mi. This also led to making her family - older rogue sister Nao Pok Yuu, older warrior brother Nao Kil Yu, younger shaman brother Nao Hae Chu, baby sister priestess Nao Hael Yu, family patriarch who took his wife's family name, formerly Wa Chu'an, now Nao Wa Chu'a, and the matriarch is just Lady Nao, also known as Nao Nao because why not.

Alliance side, puns are more prevalent, unless they're obscure video game references. Coeam is from a code from Dungeon Explorer for TG-16, Spanner is my rogue I don't care much for 'cause he's always wrong for my mood. Alpaca was my bank alt that gained inexplicable affection because I made him and deemed him too small to be a 'mule'. Fnord, you aren't cleared for that. Eiskolbyr is a Rule 63 of another character from another game I played, named for 'what every man wants'. Zarre was an auto-gen, while Kazae is a name I carry from game to game. Eikrad was made in response to all the controversy over 'zOMG WORGEN SPELLED BACKWARDS' that happened. Eazak is more than just my fave character name backwards - he's the antithesis of the other character, and it works rather well for a Worgen, even with Sdrawkcab naming. And given my fondness of characters with familial ties, I made two Night elf sisters; Venusta and Sineisis, whom I misspelled from Sinensis.

Other characters not mentioned in my sig - a gnomish monk named Twoinchpunch, a pair of draenei siblings named Debde and Debda (another Dungen Explorer reference), tauren brothers named Muzen and Zenmu (monk and hunter), a gnomish warrior named Ayepeecee who is too small to be a tank but bad enough to CARRY YOUR HINDQUARTERS (ahem), and a slew of other who I can't think of right now, save for the roommate and I making a pair of human monks with mullets named Billylee and Jimmylee.

i like the idea of a theme, but i can never make it work and im not very good at sticking to it. I was originally gonna have "Aria" in each of my characters names, and whilst a number do have it, neither of my capped alts do.

My characters are all tied with various films and directors. For example - Abrâms, Nolân or Jônës (as in "Professor Jônës.. you know who) or Bânefall (couldnt name my char Bane so I had to change the a and add little something) or Hânsolo ... yep, thats pretty much my pattern.

My main is named Chadina, which was a random generator name. Now all my characters are in the same line. Chadina, Chadamia, Chadiki, and so on. Though I do have those oddball names, like Hellei, that don't start with 'Chad'. Funny thing is, it never hit me that Chad was a guys name until after I had made the character and my guild started calling me by it. I realized after some random person asked if I was a guy because of the 'Chad' in my name.

An MMO tradition for me that started back in Dark Age of Camelot and EQ when I was like 14 or 15 was naming my characters after Capcom's "Vampire" series best known as Darkstalkers to the West (I prefer that name..it's a neat word) and I've kept that going from then until now.

I tried a thematic name once. I made a goblin warlock named Harlix, the RP justification being that she was sister to my goblin rogue Hablix. I was uneasy about it from the start, and it grated on me so bad that by level 35ish I just deleted and started over with a completely unrelated name. Never again :/